The formation of urine and its excretion are critical physiological activities of the body, which provide a mechanism for the maintenance of a constant internal environment for all cells, tissues and organs. This internal ecology of the body is well recognized and is known as homeostasis. In as much as the urine reflects what is occurring within the body, it offers a fluid, which is an important source of information that is most useful as an aid in the definition of states of health and disease.
Urine is quite widely studied as a means of identifying abnormalities associated with disease. The importance of such study is emphasized by the fact that the number of tests carried out on urine far exceeds those made on all other body fluids combined.
Superoxide and hydroxyl radicals are the more common radicals centred on oxygen, both generated from molecular oxygen under reducing conditions. In particular, superoxide anion is produced as by-product (1-2%) in the ATP biosynthesis by mitochondria. Due to the radicals formation in the metabolic pathways, living organisms have developed mechanisms for minimizing damages caused by undesired reactions of these intermediates.
Free radicals, especially those centered on oxygen, are not easily detectable because of their reactivity. Some of them have high reactivity. Some of their metabolites, e.g. hydroperoxides, can be detected.
A possible metabolic pathway for free radicals involves the reaction with unsaturated esters to give lipidic radicals and finally lipidic peroxides; further transformations of these intermediates give a certain amount of metabolites that can be revealed in human plasma and/or urine.
Among these final metabolic products (markers) the more extensively studied are:    a. Malondialdehyde (MDA): it is present at concentration of 1 uM in human plasma and 0-3 uM (0-02 ppm) in urine.    b. Isoprostans: structurally derived from prostaglandins but they come from a completely different metabolic pathway; it is likely that free radicals play a fundamental role in the production of isoprostans, therefore they are taken as very useful markers in the non-invasive assessment of oxidative stress in mammals. The 8-isoprostan is present in small amounts (10-20 ppt) in plasma and in higher amounts (0.5-3 ppb) in human urine.    c. 3-Nitro-tyrosine: produced from free radicals in the type NO; it seems a promising marker for the assessment of the oxidative stress. Urine concentrations are however quite low (0-8 ppb).
The human body to defend itself has developed numerous physical processes by which some result is produced. In order to scavenge free radicals the body uses antioxidants, but depending on life style and environmental conditions, often depending on life style and environmental conditions antioxidants are not available in sufficient quantities to neutralize the free radicals, therefore neutraceutical supplements are needed.
The ready availability of urine is an advantage that makes it practical as a material for monitoring the course of treatment of disease as well as for its recognition and definition.
MDA is the most widely used marker for oxidative stress. Different analytical method allow the determination of MDA in biological fluids; among them, the following are worth to mention: the Schiff reagent (Pararosaniline sulphate); indolic derivatives; the Thio-Barbituric acid (TBA).
The detection of Malonyldialdehyde and other Aldehydes in the blood and/or urine has hitherto been a very laborious, expensive and time-consuming procedure, which can only be carried out in suitably equipped laboratories and with skilled personnel.
A free radical is in an atom or group of atoms containing at least one unpaired electron. Electrons are negatively charged particles that usually occur in pairs, forming a chemically stable arrangement. If an electron is unpaired, another atom or molecule can easily bond with it, causing a chemical reaction. Because they join so readily with other compounds, free radicals can effect dramatic changes in the body, and they can cause a lot of damage. Each free radical may exist for a tiny fraction of a second, but the damage it leaves behind can be irreversible.
Free radicals form in many different ways. One of the most common is for oxygen to react with different chemical substances in the body, including fats. Called “oxidation”, this process is what occurs when metals rust or when fats become rancid. Although oxygen is crucial to life, in certain oxidation reaction, such as those involving polyunsaturated fats, oxygen can release the energy of the fats and in doing so created free radicals, known in this case as “oxygen radicals”. Oxygen radicals are highly volatile, dangerous molecules, rushing around madly to unload this excess energy, and in the process inflicting damage on protein, fats, and nucleic acids, including the DNA within cells.
Free radicals are normally present in the body in small numbers. Biochemical processes naturally lead to the formation of free radicals, and under normal circumstances the body can keep them in check. Indeed, not all free radicals are bad. Free radicals produced by the immune system destroy viruses and bacteria. Other free radicals are involved in producing vital hormones and activating enzymes that are needed for life. One needs free radicals to produce energy and various substances that the body requires. If there is excessive free radical formation, however, damage to cells and tissues can occur. The formation of a large number of free radicals stimulates the formation of more free radicals, leading to more damage.
The presence of a dangerous number of free radicals can alter the way in which the cells code genetic material. Changes in protein structure can occur as a result of errors in protein synthesis. The body's immune system may then see this altered protein as a foreign substance and try to destroy it. The formation of mutated proteins can eventually damage the immune system and lead to leukemia and other types of cancer, as well as a host of other diseases.
In addition to damaging genetic material, free radicals can destroy the protective cell membranes. The formation of free radicals can also lead to retention of fluid in the cells, which is involved in the aging process and many other diseases. Free radicals are a powerful enemy in our battle to maintain health. Free radicals attack the body's defenses, weakening them so that they will not properly protect us. Research has established that free radicals can damage healthy body cells.
The production of free radicals is 100% normal. It goes along with breathing. But there are things that cause a person to make more free radicals than they normally would. A non-limiting list includes:                Stress emotional or physical stress makes one breathe less and burn energy more. Stress feeds on anaerobic metabolism, not oxygen.        Ozone in the air—a great way to produce superoxide.        Auto exhaust—one breathes carbon monoxide and hydrochloric acid instead of oxygen.        Cigarette smokes—similar to auto exhaust.        Inflammation—your body's immune system creates free radicals as it fights germs.        Radiation—alters molecules in subtle ways, throwing off free radicals.        Sunlight—a form of radiation.        Impure water—between the impurities left in municipal water supplies and the chemicals used to cover them up, most water is toxic out of the tap. Beware that bottled water may come from the exact same source.        Processed foods—you can't get nutrients from man-made food, so your body shifts to anaerobic metabolism to try to get something out of it.        Toxic metals—they are in our soil, our water, our air, and they attract free radicals.        Industrial chemicals—in general, man-made chemicals are bad for you.        Drugs—even the “safe” ones the doctor prescribes for you changes a person's ability to metabolize oxygen.        Free radicals have a penchant for attacking certain parts of the cell. Damage to these specific areas creates its own set of problems.        
The cell wall: it is normally porous, allowing nutrients into the cell and letting waste products out. When attacked, it can either rupture and leak or become clogged. Either way, the cell dies prematurely.
DNA: When free radicals are in the nucleus of the cell, they are apt to attack the generic material that the cell uses to reproduce itself. Sometimes a free radical will simply attack a gene and mess up this information, which is encoded by subtle chemical bonds. Another type of damage is called cross-linking, in which the DNA is linked to a protein chain so that it cannot replicate at all. These are now seen as the leading mechanisms for cancer growth.
Blood and tissue lipids: Through a process referred to as lipid peroxidation, fatty cells in the blood and hydrogen peroxide or peroxynitrate (both are ROS) attacks tissues. An example is low-density (LDL) cholesterol which, when damaged by free radicals altered by your immune system, becomes a bloated, sticky blob that forms an obstructing plaque in the arterial wall. This hardening of the arteries (arteriosclerosis) is a leading cause of heart disease and stroke. Fats that have been peroxidized can also become rancid and toxic to your body.
Motochondria: The powerhouses of the cell, where cellular energy is created. If their reactions are interrupted by free radicals, than the cell does not have energy to work. As cells with low energy accumulate, you eventually have whole body that is low on energy, tired all the time, and having trouble fighting off disease.
Lysosomes: Lysosomes are little packets of enzymes inside the cells. These enzymes are designed to eat though anything except the membranes that contains them. When their membrane is rupture by ROS damage, those enzymes proceed to eat through that cell, and the one next to it, and the one after that, and they produce more free radicals as they go.
As we have seen many different factors can lead to the production of free radicals. Exposure to radiation, whether from the sun or from medical x-rays, activates the formation of free radicals, as does exposure to environmental pollutants such as tobacco smoke and automotive exhaust. Diet also can contribute to the formation of free radicals. When the body obtains nutrients through the diet, it utilizes oxygen molecules containing unpaired electrons are released. These oxygen free radicals can cause damage to the body if produced in extremely large amounts. A diet that is high in fat can increase free radical activity because oxidation occurs more readily in fat molecules that it does in carbohydrate or protein molecules. Cooking fats at high temperatures, particularly frying foods in oil, can produce large numbers of free radicals.
Substances known as antioxidants neutralize free radicals by binding to their free electrons. By destroying free radicals, antioxidants help to detoxify and protect the body. There are other free radicals that can show up. To deal with all oxidative damage caused by free radicals, it is important that one have enough antioxidants in their system. A person has the capacity to handle a lot more ROS than they are creating; to help maintain not only health, but youth and vitality as well.
Free radicals are molecules that have been chemically damaged (modified) by removing a single electron. If this happens to special molecules in the body such as DNA, RNS, membrane lipids and lipoproteins or enzymes their actions in the body may be affected. The end result can be poor cell function (disease) control of cell death (apoptosis) or even tissue death (necrosis). Many, if not all diseases, afflict the body through oxidative damage. The free radical theory of aging says it is the primary cause of aging itself.
Free radicals are simply unpaired electrons. Electrons like to be electrically neutral. When they are not they quickly look for something to latch on to thereby creating a new molecule. This is how many chemical reactions take place. Without these oxidation-reduction reactions, not only would life not take place, but also many of the other important functions of the body would not either. For example, which blood cells often kill their bacteria or viral enemies with free radicals?
Free radicals are like fire. Properly confined they are beneficial to the body and, fortunately, the body has means to confine them. These are called antioxidants, and they look for excess free radical activity and neutralize it. It is only when free radicals become unconfined and excessive and start attacking normal, healthy tissue that disease takes place. This happens when antioxidant activity is inadequate, hence the importance of maintaining proper antioxidant activity in the body.
A large number of methods for the detection of Malondialdehyde and other related aldehyde in the blood have been described in the past. These may be divided into five main classes: (a) Direct or indirect specto-photometric methods; (b) Spectrofluororimetric methods; (c) Chemiluminescent methods; (d) Chromatographic methods; and (e) Electrochemical methods. All such methods pose problems of specificity of instrumental complexity, which preclude their routine used by non-specialized laboratories.
Free radicals can attack the cells of your body, affecting cardiovascular, neurological and immune systems. Higher level of free radicals has been associated with a number of age-related and chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases and cancer.
Antioxidants help prevent damage to our organs by inhibiting the oxidation of cells and body fluid. Our body, cells continuously generate reactive oxygen species and other free radicals as a result of metabolic processes. Antioxidants are essential to our body's defense against free radicals that can attack the cells of the body, affecting the cardiovascular, neurological and immune systems. Antioxidants react with these free radicals and neutralize them.
Antioxidants are enzymes, vitamins and minerals that mop up free radicals, which are molecules in the body that contain one or more unpaired electrons in their orbits. These unstable molecules destroy healthy cells in an attempt to stabilize themselves. This process damages healthy cells, sometimes beyond repair. Left to run rampant, free radicals, can batter our proteins, cell membranes, and then reach the cell core of DNA. They can clog the walls of our arteries, kill brain cells, stiffen and deplete our muscles, and throw our immune systems out of kilter. The damage done to enzymes, cell membranes, and DNA may lead to the development of several serious conditions, including heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, cancer, arthritis and others.
To protect itself against free radicals damage, the human body requires antioxidants. We produce some antioxidants internally, others we ingest in the foods we eat. Antioxidants disarm free radicals in a variety of ways and then other body chemicals mop up the remnants of these once-harmful molecules before they can do any damage to the body. Among the most important antioxidants are the vitamins C, E, and beta-carotene (a precursor of vitamin A), glutathione, selenium, that work to protect our cells from free radical damage. Antioxidants scavenge and neutralize the free radicals in our body and convert them to non-toxic chemicals.
Malondialdehyde represents a measure of free radicals, specifically aldehyde free radicals from lipid peroxidation. The higher the malondialdehyde value in the urine, the greater the amounts of aldehyde free radicals, and thus the greater the degree of lipid perioxidation. Conversely, lower malondialdehyde levels reflect decreased lipid peroxidation and thus less oxidative stress to the body.
Highly active and dangerous chemical groups (free radicals) cause the damage to our cells and tissue that is at the root of most diseases. Free radicals are constantly being formed in the body as a result of basic disease processes. Unfortunately outside scientific and medical circles the subject of free radicals harm to our body is not widely understood.
The following are some conditions either caused or contributed to by free radicals: Aging, Angina, Brain Damage, Cancer, Cataract, Common Cold, Heart failure, Heart attack, Kidney disease, Male infertility, Malnutrition, Poisoning, Radiation sickness, Retinopathy, Rheumatoid arthritis, Stroke.
Oxidative stress is the negative effect created in the body by free radicals and has been intensified as a major factor in the progression of aging and diseases. The life of a free radical has three stages, the initiation stage, propagation stage and finally the termination stage. Free radicals are terminated or neutralized by nutrient antioxidants, enzymatic mechanisms, or by recombining with each other. The quest is to find that delicate balance between free radical activity and optimum antioxidant therapy, thus achieving homeostasis.
Antioxidants are known to counteract these damage-causing radicals. Examples of few antioxidants used by the body are vitamins B1 (Thiamine), B2 (Riboflavin), B3 (Niacin), B5 (Calcium Pantothenate), B6 (Pyridoxine Hydrochloride), B12 (Cyanocobalamin), C (Ascorbic Acid), D1 (Alpha Tocopheril Acetate), D3 (Ergocalciferol) and Vitamin E, 11 Acetyl-1-cysteine, Carotenoids, Lipoic Acid, Melatonin, Albumin, Omega-3, Lycopene, Flavonoids, Thiols, Resveratrol, Pyconogenol, Betacarotene (Provitamin A), L-Glutathione, CoQ10 (Ubiquinone), Papain, Papaya Fruit, Resveratrol, Lycopene, Selenium (Selenomethionine), Zinc Sulfate, and n-acetyl-1-cysteine.
Antioxidant compounds must be constantly replenished since they are “used up” (converted) in the process of neutralizing free radicals. Long-lived individuals and various animal species have been shown to have lower levels of free radicals. The body's defenders against free radicals are known as antioxidants. They scavenge and neutralize the free radicals converting them to non-toxic chemicals in the body.
Measuring the level of these free radicals form the oxidation of lipids indirectly indicates whether one's body has enough antioxidants to protect itself from free radicals. Therefore, one must continually produce more of the antioxidants in the body or ingest them either in our diet or by supplementation. Repair enzymes that can regenerate some antioxidants are Superoxide Dismutase, Bromelain, Papain, Protease, Amylase, (SOD), Glutathione, Peroxidase (GPX), Glutathione Reductase (GR), Catalase and other metalloenzymes.
Antioxidants must also be of different types so that they might be available for action when and where they are needed. When must ingest a variety of different types of antioxidants, along with other important nutrients to impact the damaging effects of the generation of free radicals by the body. This is best done through a proper balanced diet that is augmented by mineral/vitamin supplementation when needed.
In order to scavenge free radicals the human body has developed several “defense” systems. Our body uses antioxidants to “neutralize” the free radicals. These can be our own international enzymes such as catalase or superoxide-dismutase. As important are the antioxidant nutrients in our food or food supplements. Such external antioxidants are often, however, depending on life style and specific environmental conditions of the individual, not available in sufficient quantities so that free radicals may not be neutralized to the extend which the body requires.
Antioxidants help prevent damage to our organs by inhibiting the oxidation of cells and body fluid. Our body's cells continuously generate reactive oxygen species and other free radicals as a result of metabolic processes. Antioxidants are enzymes, vitamins and minerals that mop up free radicals, which are molecules in the body that contain one or more unpaired electrons in their orbit. These unstable electrons damage healthy cells, sometimes beyond repair. Left to run rampant, free radicals can batter our proteins, cell membranes, and then reach the cell core of DNA. They can clog the walls of our arteries, kill brain cells, stiffen and deplete our muscles, and throw our immune system out of kilter. The damage done to enzymes, cell membranes, and DNA may lead to the development of several serious conditions, including heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, cancer, arthritis and others.
To protect itself against free radicals damage, the human body requires antioxidants. We produce some antioxidants internally, others we ingest in the foods we eat. Antioxidants disarm free radicals in a variety of ways and then other body chemicals mop up the remnants of these once harmful molecules before they can do any damage to the body. Among the most important antioxidants are the vitamins C, E; and betacarotene (a precursor of vitamin A), glutathione, selenium that work to protect our cells form free radical damage, which is why it is so important to evaluate your intake and make adjustment if necessary. Doing so could help you maintain your health and feel more vital. Antioxidants scavenge and neutralize the free radicals on our body and convert them to non-toxic chemicals.
Free radical production is a natural occurrence in cells, especially in cells that use or are exposed to oxygen. Too much production or production in the wrong place can be harmful, both now (acutely) and in the future (chronically). The body needs antioxidant compounds to serve as a source of electrons to free radicals without damaging the cell components.
Self-monitoring free radicals in excessive quantities may play an important role in the overall health care, because indicate that one's body has not antioxidants to protect itself from free radicals. The present invention was designed to allow for such self-monitoring.